Tahi

This is the true story of the remarkable team effort to save a kiwi that lost its leg. The fictional narrator of the story is a schoolboy who is doing a project on kiwi. This is very much a multi-layered story with the tale of the kiwi running alongside the story of the boy and his attempts to impress his teacher. As well as those stories, great factual detail about kiwi appears in the boy’s notebook on every spread. Weta Workshop, the Artificial Limb Centre and Wellington Zoo all joined forces to provide this kiwi with an artifical leg.

Get Off That Camel!

From the time Meena was a baby, she’s been obsessed with camels. This fixation only becomes stronger when she’s gifted a real camel for her birthday! Absolutely thrilled with her new pet, Meena simply refuses to get off that camel! This delightful story by veteran children’s author A.H. Benjamin is accompanied by Krishna Bala Shenoi’s vibrant, colorful illustrations, and promises to take readers on a ride they’ll never forget.

What Grew In Larry’s Garden

Grace thinks Larry’s garden is one of the wonders of the world. In his tiny backyard next door to hers, Larry grows the most extraordinary vegetables. Grace loves helping him – watering and weeding, planting and pruning, hoeing and harvesting. And whenever there’s a problem – like bugs burrowing into the carrots or slugs chewing the lettuce – Grace and Larry solve it together. Grace soon learns that Larry has big plans for the vegetables in his special garden. And when that garden faces its biggest problem yet, Grace follows Larry’s example to find the perfect solution. Inspired by a real person, author Laura Alary has written a heartwarming story about how amazing things can grow when you tend your garden with kindness. In this case, Larry, a teacher, is helping to grow community. He has his students grow tomato plants that they then give away to their neighbors with personal notes. It offers a powerful lesson on the influence of generosity, while encouraging young children to become community activists in their own neighborhoods. This uplifting story fosters an appreciation for neighborhood and community at a time when that sentiment seems to be eroding. The book also contains an environmental message about harvesting your own vegetables and, with Kass Reich’s colorful illustrations, works beautifully for a life science exploration of growth and changes in plants. There are character education connections to caring, cooperation, empathy, kindness, perseverance and teamwork.

The Big Litlle Thing

It unexpectedly arrived. It brushed passed someone in the street. It weaves its way in and out of people on the street. It catches people completely unawares. But what is this It? They call It happiness! In this outstanding book, award-winning illustrator and author Beatrice Alemagna captures the pure pleasure of embracing the small things in life. Following in the footsteps of A Lion in Paris, the striking and poignant illustrations bring this sensitive story to life.

I Dream Of A Journey

Akiko Miyakoshi’s enchanting picture book explores how an innkeeper who spends his days at the crossroads of others’ journeys secretly longs to have adventures of his own. People from all over the world come and go at the innkeeper’s little hotel. He enjoys meeting them, and many even become his friends. Only, sometimes, when he goes to sleep at night, the desire to travel far away himself wells up inside him. He dreams of packing a big bag and journeying wherever he pleases, from one unfamiliar town to another. He imagines stopping to visit friends and having wonderful and unexpected experiences. The innkeeper continues to go about his daily routine at his hotel, but, someday, he is sure, he will explore the world.

What Is A Refugee?

An accessible picture book that oh-so-simply and graphically introduces the term “refugee” to curious young children to help them better understand the world in which they live.

Why Do We Cry?

This sensitive, poetic picturebook uses metaphors and beautiful imagery to explain the reasons for our tears, making it clear that everyone is allowed to cry, and that everyone does.

Why Do We Cry? has been discussed in My Take/Your Take for October 2020.

Our Superhero Edhi Baba

Edhi is our national hero. In this book I have presented him as a super hero whose super power is bigheartedness.The talented Maria said that she wants to propagate the message of being kind and helpful to others, and that she wants to instill the concept of generosity being a superpower in our kids. Maria believes that anyone with a vision of helping people around them eventually looks up to the legendary Abdul Sattar Edhi, and that’s the primary reason she wants kids to know of him and learn about his contributions to the world around them.